This Jane Austen blog brings Jane Austen, her novels, and the Regency Period alive through food, dress, social customs, and other 19th C. historical details related to this topic.

Downton Abbey Season 2: Teagowns and relaxation

My regular Jane Austen readers have been patient as I succumbed to Downton Abbey fever and began to cover events 100 years after Jane Austen’s death. Customs changed during that intervening century. Take the matter of dress. While proper Regency ladies changed their outfits from morning gowns to walking gowns when they went out, and changed into dinner dress when dining, by Victorian and Edwardian times the custom of a lady changing her clothes throughout the day had turned into a fine art. One could get by with no less than 4-5 changes per day. A woman who packed to visit a country estate was sure not to be seen in the same outfit twice. This meant that for a 4-day visit she would need at the very minimum to have her maid pack 16 changes of outfits. One can only imagine the work of a lady’s maid to keep all the clothes and unmentionables in perfect (and clean) condition. Such attention to detail required quite a bit of organization.

Morning dress, 1815. Ackermann plate. While she looked proper in her at home attire, this morning dress looks stodgy compared to the Edwardian teagown.

Corsets were worn all through the 19th century and into the early part of the 20th century. Women were constricted into these garments for most of their waking day, but there were times when they were free from these tight-laced garments. During the early 19th century, upper class women at home would wear comfortable (but beautiful) morning gowns. Dressing gowns were also worn. Such gowns were meant to be seen by the family and close relatives only. The moment a woman expected to be seen, she would change into more proper dress.

Cora, the Countess of Grantham, lived during a time when teagowns were all the rage. These beautiful ornate gowns had the advantage of being simply cut and worn without a corset. It was possible that for just a few hours she could relax comfortably before dinner.

They were generally loose-fitting and elaborately trimmed, and gave full vent to the dressmaker’s or couturier’s skill and taste for theatricality. Tea-gowns were influenced by historical styles from eighteenth century Watteau-pleats, to renaissance hanging sleeves and empire waistlines and quite often, all of them at the same time. Never has so much love and art been invested in such an arguably unnecessary garment. All kinds of informal garments including tea jackets, peignoirs, dressing gowns, combing sacques, morning robes and dressing jackets also had their place in the leisured Edwardian lady’s wardrobe, all of them beautifully decorated and almost all of them now obsolete. 1900-1919: The Last Age of Elegance

American dancer and actress Irene Castle wearing a teagown, 1913

It had long been the custom for a lady to entertain both male and female visitors in her boudoir. (Read my article on this topic.) During the Regency era, dressing gowns were quite plain and simple compared to teagowns.

1810-23 dresssing gown. Image @Met Museum

At times the teagown gave rise to temptation, for a woman could entertain in private and not need the services of her maid:

Worn between five and seven oclock, gave rise to the French phrase ‘cinq à sept‘. This referred to the hours when lovers were received, the only time of day when a maid wouldn’t need to be there to help you undress and therefore discover your secret. – “Style”, The World of Downton Abbey, Jessica Fellowes

Early 19th century dressing gown. Image @Met Museum

Attired in her tea-gown, a soft flowing robe of filmy chiffon or fine silk, trimmed with an abundance of lace and often free of corsetry, the hostess must have been a tempting prospect for many men. Such loose gowns afforded women great comfort, ease of access and a tremendous sense of femininity. Little wonder then that whilst hemlines rose and fell the tea-gown, which had appeared in England as early as 1875 lingered on until the 1920s. – Edwardian tea gowns, fashion era

I had noticed that this blog was going 100 years off track but I have come to appreciate it because it offers a great opportunity to realize that customs and fashions were far from static. Also I like DA quite a bit, as well.

No rush, Master Vic. I’m sure they’ll appreciate the extra time to get dressed.
p.s. I suppose all of this would explain the exquisite table manners. I mean, a moment’s carelessness and one lousy drop of gravy on the shirt or blouse and six hours in the boudoir goes right down the toilet.

I think it is a shame that tea gowns have disappeared. Without having the slightest desire to live in a corset, or have to change my clothes 4 or 5 days a week, the idea of having a beautiful, feminine, comfortable gown to wear for those *ahem* personal times is wonderfully appealing and (at least for some of us!) probably more becoming than the skimpier lingerie available today. A tea gown could be relished when alone with a good book or otherwise…

More examples of fashion as bondage….We like your D.A. fever! But as a writer, it interests me that however much I enjoy this program, I don’t care about any of the characters as much as I care about anybody in a Jane Austen novel.

Just listen to the dialogue on the station in your city
Linger on the sofa in your tea gown, it’s so pretty
How can you snooze?

The stars are much brighter there
You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares
And watch “Downton” — things’ll be great when it’s
“Downton” — no finer show, for sure
“Downton” — everyone’s waiting for you!!

You may find somebody kind to help and understand you
Someone just like Master Vic, who has a gentle hand to
Guide you along.

So maybe I’ll see you there
We can forget all our troubles, forget all our cares
And watch “Downton“ — things’ll be great when it`s
“Downton“ — don’t miss a minute of
“Downton“ — this show is perfect for you !!

I love the beautiful costumes on “Downton Abbey” but I am surprised at the conservative hemlines. Were skirts shorter in the States during the same period? Although I understand that hems on evening gowns would be long, I would think that day dresses would have shorter hems by the war’s end. I own an extensive collection of American sheet music from the 1910s and the cover illustrations show hemlines at mid-shin by 1919 if not earlier. I also found a newspaper reference from around 1915 or 1916 noting that hems had gone up four inches within a single season.

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Hello, my name is Vic and I live in Richmond, VA. I work in program and professional development at Virginia Commonwealth University, and I have adored Jane Austen almost all of my life. I am a proud lifetime member of the Jane Austen Society of North America. This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. I do not accept any form of cash advertising, sponsorship, or paid topic insertions. However, I do accept and keep books, DVDs and CDs to review.

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Irresistible Attraction

An online Regency novel in serialized form. Click here to read a new chapter of Irresistible Attraction each week, and follow the story of Amanda Sinclair and James Cavendish, the Earl of Downsley.

My Regency Tea Cup Review Ratings

Five Regency tea cups: The book is not perfect (few books are), but it was well worth its purchase and possesses many outstanding qualities that makes it stand head and shoulders above its counterparts.

Four Regency tea cups: This book offered many hours of pleasant reading, and I found I could not put it down.

Three Regency tea cups: Damned with faint praise. I put the book down often, but was intrigued enough to finish it. In this instance, the movie might be better.

Two Regency tea cups: This book required major changes that the author and editor should have fixed before publishing deadline.

One Regency tea cup: Oh dear. I do so feel for the trees that sacrificed their lives for this verbal garbage.